São Paulo leads the ranking of the South American States of the Future of the Financial Times

05/06/2016 09h49

São Paulo leads the ranking of the South American States of the Future of the Financial Times

Competing with 133 states in South America, São Paulo leads the ranking in three of the five categories; Investe SP is highlighted for its FDI attraction strategy

Investe São Paulo

For the second time in a row, São Paulo won first place in the ranking South American States of the Future 2016/2017, created by FDI Magazine, a magazine published by the British group Financial Times. In addition to leading the overall ranking, the state was also the highlight in three of the five categories: “Economic Potential,” “Human Capital and Quality of Life in General” and "Business Environment".

The nomination had already been made in the 2014/2015 edition of the magazine, also in April/May issue. The criterion is the investment attraction registered by fDI Markets, a research arm of the Financial Times. According to FDI Magazine, 870 new projects have been identified in the state between 2011 and 2015.

In this sense, the role of the investment promotion agency of the state, Investe São Paulo, was highlighted, with the region ranking third place in the category “investment attraction strategy.” According to the publication, “Investe São Paulo keeps potential investors informed of new developments in the state.”

“This type of recognition is only made possible due to all the public investment the state makes in infrastructure, research, human capital and economic development in general. Even in periods of crisis, São Paulo is still the continent’s main hub of innovation,” said the president of the agency, Juan Quirós.

According to the study, most of the investments registered in cities in São Paulo were in software and information technology, corresponding to 17% of the projects. The publication also mentions investments in research and development in the state, which has grown since 2013.

One example mentioned was BYD, a Chinese manufacturer of rechargeable batteries and solar powered bus that chose Campinas for its Latin American plant in a “spirit of innovation”. “Campinas is home to several universities, thus contributing to the development of research in the state,” says the magazine. It also points out that São Paulo has the largest number of higher education institutions compared to all states considered in the study, contributing to place the region in the category “Human Capital and Quality of Life.”

To create the ranking, fDI Magazine analyzes data from 133 locations through the online tools fDI Markets and fDI Benchmark, research institutions associated with the Financial Times. There are five categories: Economic Potential, Human Capital and Lifestyle, Cost Effectiveness, Infrastructure and Business Environment. A ranking for each category was created for each group of states according to their size: very large, large, medium and small.

Each location received a score from 0 to 10 for each criterion, which was prepared according to the stages of the decision-making process for foreign direct investments. For the “FDI attraction strategy” category, the applications of 28 agencies that have chosen to participate were considered.